1. Field
The technology discussed relates to data acquisition systems having multiple data acquisition channels.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Data acquisition systems are used for a variety of applications. For instance, it may be desirable to acquire data relating to one or more physical properties of a system, device, or specimen, such as temperature, speed, pressure, mass, position, or chemical composition, to name a few. Data acquisition systems can be used to acquire these types of data.
In operation, data acquisition systems often receive an input signal, sometimes referred to as a raw signal, and output a desired output signal. The input signal may be a signal measured by, or produced by, a sensor, such as a temperature or pressure sensor. The input signal could be an analog signal or a digital signal, and could constitute a current or a voltage. After receiving the input signal, the data acquisition system may process the input signal to produce the desired output signal. The input signal may be processed in any number of ways, such as filtering, scaling, sampling, averaging, amplifying, duplicating, formatting, or converting from one signal type to another (e.g., analog to digital, or vice versa). After processing the input signal, an output signal may be provided by the data acquisition system representing the desired information (e.g., temperature, pressure, etc.).
The design of a data acquisition system often depends on the type of data to be acquired and the type of output desired. For acquisition of data in simple systems, such as a system measuring a single physical characteristic of a specimen (e.g., mass), the data acquisition system may use only a single channel, and there may be little or no processing of the input signal to provide the desired output. However, for more complex measurements, such as those for which multiple data sets or multiple forms of data are acquired and processed to produce a desired output, a more complex data acquisition system structure might be appropriate.
Some data acquisition systems have multiple data acquisition channels to acquire and process complex types of data and to produce complex desired outputs. The different data acquisition channels may each operate to provide a subset of the total system data sought. For example, an image acquisition system may have multiple data channels, with each channel used to acquire and process data relating to different colors of the image, different pixels of the image, or different parameters of the image.
While conventional data acquisition systems are appropriate for some settings, it is desirable to provide new data acquisition systems.